The Cincinnatti Enquirer
May 10, 1998

Web-cam sites offer odd sights

The Internet, with its tens of millions of Web sites, offers something for everyone. Even peeping toms. Folks who like to look into windows can find lots of windows on the Internet, courtesy of some equally strange folks who like to provide an electronic peephole for the world. This is accomplished with some very simple technology: a digital camera connected to a computer. The computer snaps an electronic image of whatever it's pointed at and uploads it to a Web site every few minutes. The electronic voyeur then logs into the Web site of the obliging exhibitionist to study the pictures. These sites, called "Cam" or "Web-cam" sites, have been a Web spectacle for several years. Netscape itself provided one of the early cam sites with a constantly updated picture of a fish tank. But things have changed. Web-cams are becoming a quick way to Internet fame -- or infamy. A peek at Jennifer It helps if you are a 20-ish strawberry blonde. Just ask Jennifer of Washington, D.C., who is the star of her own JenniCam site http://www.jennicam.org Jenni and her cat Macadamia are the stars of arguably one of the most popular Web-cam sites in cyberspace. She's even appeared on NBC's Today show and in national newsmagazines. Her Web-cam sits on the top of her computer, so frequently, she can be seen working. As you could probably guess, she is a Web designer. Jenni is such a popular attraction on the Web that someone has even created a parody of her site at http://www.wescam.com

Ana Voog is another young woman who enjoys showing the world the contents of her Minneapolis apartment via her AnaCam site at http://www.anacam.com Ana, who calls herself a performance artist, occasionally parades around her apartment in the altogether, making her site occasionally R-rated.

BY CHARLES BREWER